Delhi HC agrees to hear plea seeking govt control on T20 League

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday agreed to hear a plea seeking direction to the Centre for taking control over the T20 League by separating it from BCCI in view of irregularities including spot-fixing cropping up in the cash-rich cricket tournament.

A bench of Chief Justice D Murugesan and Justice Jayant Nath, however, refused to ban the T20 League in view of the apex court's Tuesday order refusing to pass such an order.

The bench asked the petitioner, NGO Association for Social and Humanitarian Affairs, to amend its petition by deleting the prayer for ban and posted the matter for hearing on its another plea seeking government control on T20 League to August 23.

"The Supreme Court has already dealt with the prayers for ban on T20 League. And the probe into the alleged spot-fixing to be monitored by this court and the petitioner's counsel is also not pressing for them but for other prayers an amendment is required in the plea," the bench said.

The apex court while dismissing a PIL on Tuesday had declined to ban the T20 League and directed the one-man committee set up by Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to complete the enquiry and submit its report in 15 days. It had also directed BCCI to act upon the findings of the committee.

Pressing for another prayer for separation of T20 League from BCCI, the petitioner's counsel referred to a statement of the Sports Minister and told the High Court that government should take over the T20 League from BCCI.

The NGO, which moved the court through its president Kuldeep Singh Bhogal, had also sought judicial supervision of the investigation into the T20 League spot-fixing scandal case in which 18 people - three T20 League players, four former players, 11 bookies and their assistants - have been arrested so far.